RAKIM SETS THE WORLD ON FIRE WITH TWEETS ABOUT TODAY’S RAP MUSIC

Rakim is not rocking with today’s hip-hop scene. The Goat emcee and one half of the legendary DJ/Rapper duo Eric B & Rakim, took to Twitter on Tuesday to – with as much detail as possible and taking full advantage of the extended character count– make his opinion on the rap scene today known.

“You are now witnessing the devolution of rap music,” Rakim said. “The death of poetry and smoothness, they use this. The absence of a message. The inability to create meaningful change through words and verses, but the worse is, they don’t even know they hurt this artful purpose, it’s tragic.”

Rakim’s sentiments have been echoed from a few of the music industries OG’s who feel that what made Hip-Hop powerful is being lost. Legendary Producer Quincy Jones in a recent interview with vulture said that with the exception of Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamarthe hip-hop music coming out was valueless. Jones referred to artists of today and producers as being “greedy” and unknowledgeable of the history.

Rakim and Quincy Jones may have a point as artists today have been if nothing else, ignorant of the history of the rap game. Platinum selling rapper XXXtentacion in a Twitch interview with DJ Akademiks claimed he was better than Tupac Shakur because Tupac didn’t make rock music. Lil Yachty in a 2016 interview with Billboard, couldn’t name five songs from neither Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac and even went as far as calling Biggie overrated, a statement which he later apologized for.

There does seem to be a vast disconnect with the OG’s and the new rappers with the almost blatant disrespect on both sides. The question now is if we’ll see the God emcee, Rakim, get back in his bag and drop some new music to ruffle some feathers.

You are now witnessing the devolution of rap music. The death of poetry and smoothness, they use this. The absence of a message. The inability to create meaningful change through words and verses, but the worse is, they don’t even know they hurt this artful purpose, it’s tragic.